Mango Jerk Chicken Bowls

Mango Jerk Chicken Bowls

YUM is what you need to know about these little beauties – or big, I should say, because you’ll get a hefty portion full of flavour, nutrition, deliciousness and LOVE.

But first, a story.

Since I started venturing into the world of cooking in my late teens, I’ve been fortunate to have experienced very few complete and utter recipe failures. You know, the totally inedible write-offs that not even the family dog won’t go near. The ones that are so caked onto the pan that no amount of heavy duty cleanser will remove – or worse, the ones that burn straight through the pan altogether. There have, however, been plenty of solid disappointments.

There was this one time back when I lived in Bahrain when I was cooking dinner for my mum, sister, and a friend of mine who was visiting. My family members – particularly my sister – have always been honest food critics. That night I decided to make some sort of baked chicken dish whose ingredients I can’t recall any more. It was something along the lines of lemons, herbs, garlic, and perhaps some other seasonings. Somewhere along the process, I must have stopped paying attention to quantities because the unfiltered feedback came from my sister when we sat down to eat.

“Does it taste ok?”

My friend, too polite to speak up first, kept quiet and kept chewing. My sister looked very critically at the half-bite remaining on her fork and after thinking for a few seconds, piped up.

“It tastes……. kind of like a cleaning product. Like, a lemony cleanser.”

Feedback received.

Despite being pescetarian for the majority of my 20s, I’m pleased to report that these days, I’m far more skilled at cooking chicken – among other things. With my sister living over in the UK, I’m also lucky to have several substitute recipe testers who I know I can trust for comments and constructive criticism. They’re my team at work, and a few weeks ago I started a little meal delivery service for them.

In a nutshell, they place orders for breakfast smoothies and/or lunch at the end of each week for the week ahead. I prep them in batches the night before and bring the meals into the office. (I’m becoming known as the tupperware lady very quickly.) Most days, my lunch buddies also get dessert in the form of protein bites if they’re good and eat their veggies. The hands-down favourite so far has been these Chocolate Chip Cashew Cookie Dough Protein Bites, but I have a bazillion more flavours to share with you guys soon that have all been given the lunch club stamp of approval.

In addition to new orders at the end of each week, I also have my team fill out a feedback survey. They rate each meal on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being absolutely inedible, and 10 being out-of-this-world foodgasmic. They also tell me if there’s anything they want more of, or never want to see again. (If what I served them tasted like a cleaning product, I’m sure they’d find some creative way to break it to me gently.)

It just so happens that these Mango Jerk Chicken Bowls have been one of the highest rated recipes yet, which is why I knew they were a must-share with all of you.

Trust me when I say that the spice rub in this recipe – a blend of warm, spicy and sweet – is where the real magic lies. You can make your own as I did, or buy pre-made jerk seasoning if that’s easier for you. In combination with all the textures from each ingredient, expect your taste buds to light up on the first bite. Just like my co-workers, I think this might just become one of your go-to healthy favourites too!

Mango Jerk Chicken Bowls

Zesty, spicy, sweet and super fresh, these Mango Jerk Chicken Bowls might soon become one of your healthy dinner time favourites. Serve them with brown rice, or cauliflower rice to make the recipe paleo-friendly.

Instructions

Prepare the seasoning by combining all spices listed above in a small jar.

In a bowl, toss the uncooked diced chicken in all but 1 tsp of the jerk seasoning. Try to coat as much as possible.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan for 1 minute. Add the spice-covered chicken and juice of 1 lime, then stir fry for 5-6 minutes, or until all pieces are cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a bowl but don’t wipe out the pan yet.

Immediately add the peppers, red onion and remaining seasoning to the same pan, along with remaining lime juice. Stir fry in the spices until the peppers have just softened, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat.

Season the rice: Squeeze a few lime wedges into the rice and mix in about 1 tbsp minced or torn cilantro.

Assembly: Divide rice of choice between two bowls. Arrange (in this order): the seasoned bell pepper mixture, chicken, diced mango, tomatoes and sliced jalapeno. Top with diced avocado and more cilantro. Garnish with lime wedges and squeeze them over top before enjoying.

Notes

For even more intense flavour, rub the chicken with the jerk marinade and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour.

Now it’s over to you. I’d love to hear about some of your recipe disasters. Any epic ones to report? Do tell! Aside from cleaning product chicken, another one of mine was peanut butter cookies – or peanut butter bullets as they became known. Let’s just say I hadn’t done much baking with whole grain flour yet, and these little guys came out of the oven solid enough to break windows!

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My name is Angela and I've got a fiery passion for turning fresh, healthy ingredients into delicious mouth-watering meals. I love watermelon, green smoothies, and running around Vancouver, the city I'm proud to call home.

2 Comments

I have a question. I have a vegetarian in the family. I thought that I’d try this with garbanzo beans. Would you cook the beans in the lime juice and the seasoning or just coat it and move on to the peppers? Do you think it would be better with extra firm tofu? All suggestions welcome. Thanks so much!

Hi Karen,
This is SUCH a great question and I love where your head is at! I think you could modify with either garbanzos or firm tofu. Here’s what I’d do:

Garbanzos:

After cooking them, heat 1 tsp of the olive oil in a frying pan and toss them in, along with the jerk seasoning and lime juice. (Pretty much the same as what’s indicated in the recipe as-is). Cook them just long enough to get them hot, then transfer them to a bowl and continue with the remaining instructions. Alternatively, you could toss them in the olive oil, lime juice and seasoning, then roast for 20-25 mins at 400F in order to get them crispy while you cook everything else – totally up to you! Just be sure to shake the pan occasionally so that they cook evenly.

Firm tofu:

This could also work, but I’d recommend ensuring the tofu is really well-pressed, then leave it to marinade for longer than you would the chicken – overnight if you can. I’d also add the juice of another lime to the marinade because you’ll want the tofu to absorb as much of that flavour from the liquid as possible.
Either way, I think both would be delicious and would love to hear how it turns out! 🙂